The Voyage Never Travelled
by Pixelframe
Summary: A collection of shorts about various crew members and their experiences on Voyager. They are in no particular order.
1. Admiral's Ensign

_Characters: Tom/B'Elanna/Seven, __Genre: Comedy/Romance, __Rating: K_

_A/N: Just an FYI, Paris gets demoted to ensign midway season 5._

**Admiral's Ensign**

Tom was walking towards the turbolift a little faster than usual this morning. His hair was a mess and, so far, he had one arm through his Starfleet uniform. By the time Seven was within five feet of him, he was running his fingers forward through his hair in an attempt to make it neater, but he failed.

Seven cupped her data pad with both hands, stood straight before Tom and gave him a look as if an explanation for his appearance was required. "Good morning." Her tone had the usual condescendence.

Tom barely looked at her as he only stopped for a moment to give an insincere smile. "Hello Seven. Can't talk right now, got to get to engineering before a certain engineer puts me in the dog house." He snorted. "Although, I think I'm in it already."

"You are referring to B'Elanna."

Tom gave a stretched nod.

Seven exhaled heavily and folded her hands behind her back. "I suggest you take caution in talking to her. She has been acting extremely irritable and hostile ... more than usual."

Tom studied her to see if B'Elanna's verbal abuse had penetrated that Borg exterior. It appeared it hadn't. "Why, what'd she say to you?"

"It is not important. Her Klingon behaviour is something I've come to expect on a daily basis. It is pointless getting upset about it." She turned her attention back to her data pad and continued down the hall.

"Easy for a Borg to say."

. . .

The doors slid open revealing a vibrant blue warp core and the bustle of Starfleet engineers. Somehow, everyone seemed to be on edge, their faces strained on what they were doing. Not one person looked at Tom as he entered the bay.

"VORIK. DID YOU DO THE INTEGRAL ANALYSIS ON THE WARP FIELD YET?"

"No Sir." The Vulcan said calmly. "I've been trying to realign the primary relays-"

"WELL HURRY IT UP."

"Aye Sir."

Tom took a deep breath and walked over to the woman pounding at the control panel in front of the core. "The new warp core enhancements keeping you busy?"

Her eyes remained glued to the panel. Her jaw was clenched. "What do _you_ want."

Tom half rolled his eyes. His palms were outstretched out in his defence. "I'm sorry B'Elanna."

She didn't respond.

"Look, tonight we'll have dinner. I promise, I'll make it up to you." She moved to another control panel and he followed. "Grilled steak with mushrooms and green peppers, the finest tasting wine and a calm midnight setting on the shores of San Francisco." He was looking and acting as cheerful as he could.

"Fine."

"W-what, really?"

She finally looked at him but with a straight face. "Tonight at twenty-one hundred hours. Somehow, no matter how impossible and absent minded you are, even _you_ couldn't possibly stand me up for three dinners in a row." She looked down at the console again. "Or maybe it's just wishful thinking."

"It's not." Tom smiled and grasped her hand. An act she didn't resist.

When she looked at him, her expression had more concern than sternness. "Tonight, I want you to tell me what's been bothering you Tom."

His grin faded, eyes lowered.

"I'm not angry because I couldn't have a meal with you." She put her hand over his. "I'm upset because you don't tell me what's going on in with you, when clearly, there is something."

For a moment, the thin line between his lips grew into simple and honest smile. "Alright," he whispered.

He slowly withdrew and made his way out of the engineering bay. He sighed and rubbed the back of his head.

"Doctor to ensign Paris."

The doctor had put a little too much emphasis on this "ensign" part. He tapped his com. "Paris here."

"I require your presence in sickbay. Something I was expecting over an hour ago."

He smirked. "I'm on my way Doc."


	2. What's the Occasion

_Characters: Icheb/Janeway/Neelix/Tom, __Genre: General, __Rating: K_

**What's the Occasion**

The room was filled with streamers and balloons. He wasn't sure what the occasion was since he was expecting the usual crowd at eleven hundred hours for lunch. Out of nowhere, Neelix shoved a platter in his face, and on top were tall glasses filled with bubbly liquid.

"Icheb! How wonderful to see you! Take one. It's customary to drink at these types of celebrations. And remember to enjoy yourself!"

"What are we-" But Neelix had already moved onto the next glassless person. Icheb held the drink with his index finger and thumb as if it was a test tube. He looked around at everyone else drinking and enjoying themselves in laughter and conversation.

A hand fell on his shoulder and Tom came to his side. "How's it going Icheb? Enjoying yourself?"

He frowned. "I am unsure of what it is I'm supposed to be enjoying."

Tom raised a brow and smirked. "Don't you know? It's-" B'Elanna grabbed him by the arm, gave him a saucy head jerk and pulled him away.

Perhaps if he took a sip, he wouldn't feel so out of place. As he did, he felt a surge of soft pricks against his tongue, then a sourness, then a cool and refreshing sensation as he swallowed. He cleared his throat and looked awkwardly at the glass.

"Don't tell me that's your first drink."

"Captain." Icheb changed his entire poise so that it was straighter. The captain waved him down with a palm. "Would you mind telling me what we're celebrating?"

The captain grinned widely and almost laughed. She put an arm behind him and they walked towards a counter with platters of colourful foods. "Here try this." With a small pick, she picked up what looked like a curly orange stripped worm of some sort. After dipping it in a flaky red sauce, she handed it to him with a serviette.

As the organic morsel fell on his tongue, he immediately tasted a burst of flavour that was similar to a hot spice his mother used to prepare with his meals. He bit down on the squishy meat and a sweat saltiness filled his mouth.

She was studying his reaction with a patient smile. "It's shrimp. One of earth's better tasting seafood. I could eat a gallon of these and not get full."

"I suspect that would be unhealthy captain."

"Oh? Why's that exactly?"

"Because they are far too delicious." He managed a smile.

"You're absolutely right. Can't have a captain indulging in the finer things in life." She winked at him.

"Okay everybody!" Neelix shouted through the crowd. He was holding a large rectangular cake that had yellow light sparkling around it. Crew members from all around faced Icheb and started singing a joyful tune.

Icheb looked around nervously, unsure of how to react. As Neelix approached, he could make out blue swirly writing on the surface of the cake. It read: "Happy Birthday Katherine". Like a giant fuel reactor combusting, Icheb finally understood. He faced the captain who was smiling with her hands to her cheeks. Icheb outstretched a hand and said: "Happy birthday captain."

She held his hand between both of hers and responded: "Thank you Icheb."

As Neelix laid out the cake before the captain, Icheb took another sip of his drink and let the night's festivities take him without resistance.


	3. Dangerous Fireworks

_Characters: Naomi/Neelix/Tom, Genre: Suspense, Rating: K+_

**Dangerous Fireworks**

Naomi Wildman placed both hands under her chin with her elbows on the dashboard and stared into the video of her mother with a sullen expression. Her, Neelix and Tom had just entered a nebula that looked like a jumble of mass spider webs, interconnected by bright and colourful bulbs of energy.

"I'm sorry I can't be there with you to watch those bright lights honey." Her mother gave a regretful smile.

"It's okay mom, I know how important your first contact mission is." She grinned. "Don't worry, Neelix will take plenty of holophotos. We'll show them to you when you get back."

Neelix poked his head over Naomi's shoulder. "I dunno Sam. You're going to be missing quite a spectacular show." His voice had a teasing gravity.

She sighed. "Have fun you guys. Happy birthday sweetheart." She blew a kiss into the screen.

"Bye mom."

"So, how did you say these fireworks were supposed to start?" Tom asked as he reduced the Delta Flyer's speed to a slow hover.

Neelix shuffled to his side. "Well, if I recall correctly ..." With a hairy finger, he started entering parameters into the weapon systems. "You just need to fire a recalibrated torpedo at one of the interconnecting nodes and ..." He smiled and got ready to dramatically press the launch button.

Tom blocked his finger. "Hold on. You're sure this is safe?"

"Bah!" He waved a hand at him. "I've done this plenty of times."

Tom hardly looked convinced.

"How about we target that smaller group of lights over there." Naomi pointed out the starboard window that revealed a network of half a dozen isolated nodes. "Better to test if you aren't sure mom always said."

"I'm with her," Tom made a thumbing motion at Naomi.

Neelix rolled his eyes. "Alright, alright. But don't blame me if the excitement is ruined." He changed the targeting coordinates, looked at Tom and Naomi with a suspenseful expression and launched the torpedo. It struck one of the nodes and there was a blinding flash of green light, expelling hundreds of small lightning bolts in an exhilarating display that made Naomi's mouth drop. In a chain reaction, the next node exploded but this time in a bright flash of red light. The next node to explode was a vibrant purple. Neelix was hooting and hollering as he rapidly took snapshots with his holocamera. Tom was looking on with an appreciative grin.

Something hit the flyer hard, shaking the bulk heads with a disorienting vibration. Neelix lost his footing and fell backwards to the floor. Tom's head went sideways and knocked into the side of the dashboard. Naomi was shaken, but remained unharmed in her seat. "Tom!" she yelled.

Neelix had gotten back to his feet and was looking frantically out the windows. "What happened?" His voice was shrill.

Tom managed to sit back up in his seat. A stream of blood ran down from the side of his forehead, something Naomi was shocked to see as her eyes widened.

"Is it the nebula?" Neelix asked Tom.

"No." Another strike to the hull shook the ship. "It's weapons fire." His voice was strained. There were many beeps and alerts sounding inside the ship. "We're being hailed."

An alien humanoid appeared on screen. He had similar features to a human accept the ends of his ears were a lot longer, stretching down to the bottom of his jaw. He appeared young, around fifteen years of age by human standards. His voice sounded angry. "Unknown vessel. You have committed a crime firing on our plexus. You _will_ be destroyed." There was no mistaking the seriousness in his words.

"Now hold on just a minute!" Tom said but the transmission was cut off before he could say anything more. There was a surge of electricity that sounded from the console.

"Tom! Get away from there!" Neelix went to pull him away from the shoulders but he was too late. Bright sparks of electricity exploding from the dashboard striking Tom's face and body. He fell sideways in his seat unconscious. Severe burns had lacerated his face. Naomi jumped from her seat and tried to pull Tom down and away from the controls. Neelix assisted her as the ship shook and sparks sprayed from all systems.

Neelix reached for the console. "Delta Flyer to Voyager! We're-" Another volley to the hull shook them. "We're under attack! We need assistance!"

Harry's voice came through the com. "Voyager to Delta Flyer. Hang in there Neelix, we're on our way."

"Shields at ... thirty percent. Our warp engines are offline." Noami said looking at the sensor readings.

"Computer! Target the attacking vessel's weapon systems with a torpedo and fire!" Neelix yelled.

_"Unable to comply. Auto-targeting is offline."_

Naomi was standing very straight with her arms stiff at either side. She was staring at Neelix with a frozen and unsettling expression. "Neelix," she murmured.

"Don't worry," Neelix said with a smile. "We're going to get out of this." He sounded as if the situation wasn't as serious as it looked, but Naomi knew better.

_"Warning anti-matter containment failing. Warp core breach imminent."_

"Computer. Divert all available power to anti-matter containment." Neelix turned to Naomi and on his knees held her by both shoulders. "Naomi. I know you are very scared but I need you to do something for me." Her eyes were wide, her lips a thin line. "I need you to take the helm while I manually target the enemy ship."

"But-"

"Naomi Wildman," he said in a parental tone that was oddly comforting at the moment. "You've taken lessons with Tom before. I know you can do this."

She made three short nods and quickly ran to the seat at the helm. As she sat down she was immediately overwhelmed by all the buttons and sensor data that was displayed before her. Suddenly, everything Tom had taught her during their pilot lessons was a complete blank. She nervously looked back at Neelix who was at tactical. The hull hummed with energy as the flyer's lasers sent four consecutive volleys at the enemy vessel. Three of them missed by meters and one grazed its shielding with minimal effect.

"Good thing Tuvok isn't here to witness my tactical abilities," Neelix mumbled to himself.

Naomi looked back at the controls and took a deep breath. "You can do this," she whispered to herself. "Be one with the ship. You are the ship," she repeated Tom's words. She pressed one button, and then another. The blank memories were coming back quickly, although nerves were shaking her entire body. Another strike to the Delta Flyer felt like it penetrated through the shields. She finally set a course out of the nebula, and the flyer started to move. As she took a large breath, a large energy node came into view and Naomi stared at it for a moment. The recent memory of seeing nodes exploding into vibrant energy particles raced through her mind. Suddenly, an idea struck her. She didn't know if it would work, but she was always taught to explore all possible solutions when encountered with a problem. "Neelix! Maybe we could use those energy nodes to somehow disable the other ship."

Neelix paused for a moment in thought, and then his eyes widened. "We could lure him in the path of one of them, then destabilize the node and send an electric surge through his ship!"

Naomi made a gratified smile and adjusted the ship heading. The enemy ship was tailing them by a thousand meters as the Delta Flyer flew past the bright blue node.

"A little further," Neelix said in anticipation. After a few more seconds Neelix launched a torpedo. A humongous flash of light engulfed the flyer sending vibrations through the hull. Both had to shield their eyes. The light soon faded, and Naomi looked at the console.

"The ship has been disabled." She beamed at Neelix and he replied with a firm nod.

Beeping came from the console. Neelix activated the com, and Harry appeared on the screen.

"Neelix," Harry said as he scanned the inside of the flyer. "Is everyone alright?" It was clear by the tone of his voice he was aware of the disabled ship floating in the distance.

"Tom was hit by an electrical feedback surge, he needs to get to sickbay right away," Neelix said.

Naomi was bent over Tom with her hands tightly nestled in her lap. She gazed at the redness and burnt marks on his face as if it was her doing. "Will he be alright?" As she spoke, his body started materializing into blue particles.

Neelix smiled and put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure he'll be fine. Thanks to you, we made it out in one piece."

Naomi looked to the ground and gave a weak smile. She knew Neelix was just being nice. But the truth was, it could have easily been her or even Neelix who got hit by that energy blast. The sad thought seemed to gnaw at her mind. Contact with alien races was a dangerous thing, whether by intention or mistake. She was now aware of that reality.


End file.
